Wednesday, December 31, 2008

So embattled Illinois Governor Blagojevich thinks he can pull a fast one on America by nominating a black man to replace President-elect Obama in the U.S. Senate. Blago is confident that Illinois black folks will accept this scum-ball move, and it looks like he has got some takers.

Congressman Bobby Rush admonished the public not to ‘lynch or hang’ the Governor’s pick, Roland Burris, simply because of the allegations hanging over Blagojevich. Come on now, such incendiary language is only designed to slam the race card onto the table, while striking fear into the hearts of any white person who would dare to object, and risk the R-label.

Well blacks are not taking the bait, so white folks can just put down their broad brush. Burris is an untarnished public servant who deserves more than the damage of this association, yet he has foolishly invited it upon himself. His former good name cannot shield him from Blago’s pimp. If Burris wants to aid the Governor’s antics, he will have to pay the consequences.

Obama has called for Blago to step down and withdraw from this distracting gamesmanship. Some blacks will certainly call Obama’s position expedient to pleasing whites, and this is an accusation the incoming president should expect. On the other hand, I am happy to see blacks just say no to the race card, understanding that using it to further advancement only sets blacks back.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

I was not surprised when I saw that one of the RNC leadership candidates was sending around a CD with a song carrying this title. I’m not really offended, as I have come to expect the ‘sour-race-grapes’ out-pouring after the election. Poor losing has become part of American culture, so why should now be any different. I’m sure Bush supporters can point to the same behavior by Democrats in 2004.

Nevertheless, it is interesting how people stick to strategies, when the losing result is obvious. There are plenty of reasons to dislike or disagree with Obama (as with any politician), but after his election, race just does not seem to be a good choice. The race card is tired, and needs a holiday. But some people will insist, knowing no other option.

I would like to see the Republicans clean up their act and broaden their appeal; lest politics becomes a single-horse race. Forget the lunatic fringe, it’s all about who holds the middle. Some Republicans recognize this, many do not. We can only watch to see who comes around and how long it takes.

Meanwhile, Obama has a job to do and no time to concern himself with this B.S.

Friday, December 26, 2008

How fitting that the multi-talented Ms. Kitt would make her final exit on Christmas. My parent always played her 'Santa Baby' on the eve. She will also be remembered for getting into a scrap with Lady Bird Johnson at a White House affair. As it goes, Eartha did not mince words about this country sending its boys off to die in Vietnam. She caught professional heat for a time after that, but she was her own woman. Lastly, she deserves credit for doing her part to show the world that black women could portray more than domestics, but sexy vixens as well.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

I woke to an NPR report of a suicide of one of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi investors. Seems the poor fellow loss something like $1.6B of other people’s money, with Madoff, including his own 150% leveraged position. I am not surprised that tragic exits might follow such an event, and old Bernie better remember to zig and zag while walking in public, as I see it. (Pictured: Carlo Ponzi)

Anyway, they say he stole $50 billion, but that’s a lot of money to just go poof. Where did the dough go, really? Bernie still has, by all accounts, a few hundred million, now held on ice by the authorities. So I did my own back of the envelope analysis to try to understand what really happened to the money.

For starters, practically speaking Bernie did not steal $50B, rather he redistributed a lesser amount, say about $40B (for a fee), among a small group of very wealthy, mostly Jewish, victims and their philanthropic organizations. Of course, he carried out this redistribution without anyone’s permission, hence the technical accusation of stealing.

If we assume the $50B invested over 20 years, with an average bogus return of 10%, we just found $5B in fake profit redistribution from later to earlier investors, in order to keep the Ponzi game lubricated. Now if we figure that Bernie made 5% in fees, and another 5% went to other middle men, then we just found another $5B that was simply eaten up in cost. So now we are left with $40B, most of which was either paid back as principle to earlier investors - redistributed, or lost in a crumbling market (like my 401K).

So yes, Bernie is a low-life thief who used his Jewishness to prey upon other Jews, but there are also bunch of wealthy Jews and Jewish organizations currently in possession of a lot of other people’s money – and I bet they don’t give it back willingly.

So in the end, Jewish philanthropy will survive, perhaps in different hands, courtesy of Bernie. The rank order of richest Jews will certainly change, thanks to Bernie. The Palm Beach Country Club will likely print Bernie’s picture onto the seats of all their dining room chairs – and life will continue. But the question will remain in the minds of many, how this man, a Jew, could hate the Jews, and his family, and himself so much, all at once.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Watch this if you want to see how to stuff 5lbs. of Japanese into a 4lb. commuter train. Quite entertaining. This is clearly a mono-cultural phenomena that you could never see in the US. Can you imagine the liability created by this shoe-horning of flesh? Some of those salarymen have to be serial gropers, I'm sure. Amazing.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

I like Letterman and I like Streep, so it stands to reason that I would like them together and goofing on each other. Besides, in this unplugged-look, drawing the eyes is the challenge to have her look as good as life. You be the judge.

This sympathy post goes out to all the Jews of the world who said an instant-prayer the moment they heard that a man stole $50 billion dollars. They want him not to be Jewish, because they know how their entire group is typically tarnished by the notable acts of a few. But their prayers were not answered. Arrested investment guru Bernard L. Madoff is not only a Jew, but one of stature once great, and now rotting at light-speed.

The real story is not how one man succumbs to temptation and tarnishes himself and his people, but rather how an entire culture - American culture - falls prey. While Madoff is a modified Robin Hood, stealing from the rich and giving to the rich, including himself, he is only one. It took thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of greedy people for him to work his criminal magic. Their lust for material wealth had them continuously looking the other way when he promised and delivered profits that were unheard of in consistency, over-top a volatile world. The story is of human greed.

To be clear, there are an untold number of Jews among the victims of Madoff, as well. But just as law abiding blacks cringe and pray when the newscasters announce fresh rounds of urban violence and death tolls (with not a white in sight), millions of law abiding Jews are shifting uncomfortably in their chairs over Madoff's billion dollar Ponzi scheme.

But a word of warning too, this post announces no holiday on this blog's policy of rejecting anti-Semitic vitriol. But if the future is like the past, the Jew-bashers will come out anyway and I will do what I always do - delete.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas asked his fellow jurists to stand behind his grudge match with Obama, regarding the president-elect's citizenship, and they promptly batted his flatted-footed, no-spin, no-arc, no-chance-in-hell shot into the nose-bleed seats. This is a man who likes humiliation.

Now I understand if Thomas is not excited about Obama's win, as they are ideological opposites. I also understand that it stung Thomas to have Obama tell the world, during the election, that as a jurist Clarence did not have the 'game' to sit on the high court. But hey, with Harvard Law, Law Review, Constitution scholar-chops on his resume, Obama has as qualified an opinion as we are going to find among politicians. Perhaps it is the weight behind Obama's jabs that motivated this flailing. Regardless, Thomas needs to retake his seat and go back to being seen, and not heard.

If ever there was a man who did not know how declare victory (18 years ago) and move on, it is Thomas. He has proved his GHWBush AA appointee status time and time again, by his inability to distinguish himself, and he knows it. In all his years on the court he has gained neither the respect of his adversaries nor his fellow conservative justices. At best, he is tolerated as water-boy for the far right (stare decisis). Sitting mute, day after day, he has only cemented himself as the worse-case scenario of affirmative action - where an undeserving person is arbitrarily gifted a tenured position. He lets the others do the heavy lifting. Having a voice and getting challenged is part of the job Clarence, for god sakes! I suspect he fears being embarrassed in public, and he is probably right. It's that unscripted legal banter that threatens, to this day, to expose Thomas as a legal lightweight. Recall how well Sara Palin was considered until she actually spoke in public without a script.

Yet again, with this latest ill-advised move against Obama, Thomas has opened himself to disdain, open-faced and hidden, from all quarters.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

No single factor of development is more influential than the status of the 'rule of law' in a given society. Africa, as a region, continues it's lock on last place among humanity, when it comes to employing this evolutionary requirement of advancement. Robert Mugabe's terrorist reign over Zimbabwe is the best example of continued tragedy under the weight of near-contagious tribalism.

Despite the common rhetoric that Africa suffers its current plight due to the exploits of colonialism, the entrenched nature of the continent's problems simply does not bear this out. In fact, it was slowed development, in the thousands of years before whites ever returned, that made Africans vulnerable to takeover. Once the white captors were expelled, Africans simply returned to tribal ways, now cloaked in the left-over trappings of democracy. White people may be faulted for taking advantage, but the original slower progress resides with the place and it's inhabitants, and today's tyrants can point at no one but themselves.

Only through placing responsibility where it rightfully belongs, and in the right amounts, will outsiders ever be able to truly help Africa. Regardless of who is exploiting them, they are victims of themselves. The democratic leaders of Africa, especially southern Africa, must part company with liberators-turned-thugs, like Mugabe. He has replaced one form of tyranny with another, his own, and the people are worse-off.

Thursday, December 04, 2008

What is clear. The voting public selected Barack Obama and Joe Biden to become this country's leadership, come January 20, 2009. What is NOT clear. President-elect Obama’s meeting of the test of natural-born citizenship, thereby qualifying him, and providing uncontestable installation into the office as winner.

The US Supreme Court decided the 2000 election battle between Bush and Gore, and they may very well decide whether Obama ever moves into, or gets to stay in, the White House, not to mention the chaos this process would rain down on our already beleaguered country. Of note, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is considering the merits of one of the challenges, even as I write this. Then again, I am hard pressed to see officials from Hawaii, or the US State Department, standing up against the voters or Obama. I am also dubious of the US allowing officials or records of Pakistan or Indonesia to influence, through testimony, who sits in the Office of the President of the US.

The first issue is whether Obama’s original Hawaii birth certificate, as presented, is valid. While some argue that he was actually born in Kenya, rather than Hawaii, as his Kenyan grandmother testifies, this is not the substantive issue. Hawaii provides for its citizens to bear children outside of the country, within certain requirements. Upon return, the state will issue a birth certificate in exchange, resembling the one offered by the Obama camp on their website. The real issue would seem to be if his parent met the stated residency requirements for valid issuance. The discretion of the decision maker in this case, the Hawaii Director of Health, would seem to create significant latitude, making challenge very difficult, except if there was evidence that either of his parents had valid non-US passports at the time. This would evidence a problem with Hawaii’s issuance of Barack’s US certificate, which they claim as valid.

The Hawaii requirements are as follows… [§338-17.8] Certificates for children born out of State. (a) Upon application of an adult or the legal parents of a minor child, the director of health shall issue a birth certificate for such adult or minor, provided that proof has been submitted to the director of health that the legal parents of such individual while living without the Territory or State of Hawaii had declared the Territory or State of Hawaii as their legal residence for at least one year immediately preceding the birth or adoption of such child. (b) Proof of legal residency shall be submitted to the director of health in any manner that the director shall deem appropriate. The director of health may also adopt any rules pursuant to chapter 91 that he or she may deem necessary or proper to prevent fraudulent applications for birth certificates and to require any further information or proof of events necessary for completion of a birth certificate.

The second issue is whether Obama’s mother later relinquished her son’s US citizenship, as it seems she did her own, when she married an Indonesian and moved to that country, with Barack in-tow. Indonesia does not allow dual-citizenship, so any evidence of Barack's activity as a citizen of that country is also evidence that his current US status could only be naturalized, not natural-born, thereby disqualifying his presidential bid (under Article Two of the US Constitution).

Following this logic, Obama’s self-described trip to Pakistan in 1981 begs the question of what passport he used. Only the US State Department, the Pakistan government, and/or Indonesia can definitively say what requirements he must have met to enter/return to each country. Which State Department staffers are going to put themselves in the line of fire testifying about what the Pakistani’s or Indonesian’s were requiring, at the time Obama visited? I say probably none.

So in the end we come back to where we started, where concerns and evidence together have yet to meet the test of formal inquiry. Despite negative connotations associated with his name, his mixed-race, and affiliations, the discretion of the voters was that Obama should lead. Voters believed his words more than Senator McCain’s, so we need to get out of his way and let him do the job. We will know soon enough if Justice Thomas thinks this dog will hunt. Thomas will probably kick this one back, but then again he may see this as a chance to show just how long he can hold a grudge.

Monday, December 01, 2008

First, I will apologize for any rambling in this post, but all this recent transcending of race has me discombobulated.

Muslim terrorists in Mumbai, India kill at least 200 people, injuring many more, in the name of religious angst, and in this country Bobby Jindal, son of Indian immigrants and Republican governor of Louisiana, lands in Iowa, in a visit clearly calculated to test the 2012 presidential waters. First Obama wins, and now (perhaps) an ethnic Indian and Republican running for president? Ok, we have my attention.

Mumbai is a clear-on symbol of western influence in the second largest country on earth, and a growing battle-front between Muslims and everybody else, in this case Hindus. Rest assured that what disturbs the Muslims the most is the westernization, normally associated with Christianity and capitalism. This progress looks like fancy hotels, clothes, cars, dining, and unbridled consumption, all in a country many hundreds of millions deep in desperate poor - sounds like home minus the volume.

In the US, on Obama’s heels, the Hindu-turned-Catholic Jindal and white Republican power-brokers are considering if the remaining red-states are ready to put up a Piyush “Bobby” Jindal for higher office. Is Jindal, a Rhodes Scholar no-less, the remedy for beaten conservatives, rather than the good-old American whiteness of "Miss Incoherent" Sarah Palin? I’m wondering.

Now just as I was considering if the good old boys were finally going to have their American race war, this religious bloodshed leaps off the front-page, not only in Mumbai, but also Manila, Paris, Nigeria, Kenya, and more Muslim enclaves to come. In California, the Mormon and Black Church have become strange bedfellows in the fight against gay marriage. The Supreme Court girds for a new round of justices and more Roe v. Wade religious sparring.

The kicker for me was recalling how McCain practically handed Obama the election when he told a voter, and America, that Barack is NOT a Muslim. So its not just about Israel anymore. Does religion matter more than race?

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